It’s been more than a month since Sir Ian McKellen posted an entry on his blog “Notes From Imladris” dedicated to his adventures filming The Hobbit. But the wait seems to have been worth it.

His latest blog entry “THE HOBBIT, 2 Elves, and another Wizard” is replete with a picture of Hugo Weaving, who’ll be returning as Lord Elrond, a screencap from ROTK of Bret McKenzie as the Elf Lindir, and a picture of  Sylvester McCoy who’s been cast in the role of Radagast the Brown.

Threads of interest follow:

  • Martin Freeman has left The Hobbit. No worries: he’ll be back in Middle Earth after our first hiatus… The rest of the cast remains on duty for another few weeks, working on hobbit-less sections of the film.  These involve dwarves of course but also elves, with Hugo Weaving back for a stretch as Lord Elrond.
  • Another slim-line elf returning from LOTR, is a local: New Zealand’s actor/comedian/singer Bret McKenzie. Now he is briefly back in Rivendell as a senior official at Elrond’s Court and he has a name “Lindir”, which means “singer”.
  • And there’s another wizard in town, preparing to make his appearance as Radagast the Brown, the eccentric friend of Gandalf’s, played by Sylvester McCoy. This week he has been trying out his make-up and costume.

The blog post makes for an amazing read, so be sure to click that link above and read the Grey Wizard’s notes in his own hand.

The New York Times got some information wrong last week when it said Bilbo’s sword was named ‘Orcrist.’ Check out the image above for the official correction! It is also pretty cool to know that professional baseball players are relatively well read! (Thanks to Justin and many others for the heads up!)

The BBC America Blog has an interesting interview with Orlando Bloom where his words seem to imply he’s going to be a part of The Hobbit (as, of course, the Elf Legolas).

Here’s one of the statements he makes:

I can’t really discuss it too much at this point, but I’m very excited at the prospect of being a part of it again. I think it will be wonderful to get back there.

Read the rest of the interview for Orlando’s thoughts on Peter Jackson as a director, and the themes of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

What do you think? Is Orlando Bloom pretty much going to be in these movies at this point? Follow the “Discuss” link to share your thoughts with fellow fans on our message boards.

On this episode of Hobbit in 5 we talk about Saoirse Ronan not taking part in The Hobbit, Hugo Weaving’s return, do a character study on Kili, and more!

May 6th, 2011 – Episode 16

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Den of Geek has a great new interview with Sylvester McCoy who’s been cast in the role of the Wizard Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit. A few excerpts follow:

You’re heading off next to New Zealand to do The Hobbit, then! This must be the biggest adventure of all now?

I think it is, yeah. I think it’s a big one. I’ve had quite a lot of wonderful adventures in my life, and this one, I’m so excited.

When did you first hear, then, that you were close to landing a part inThe Hobbit? Because the rumour mill had been going for a while.

Well, last summer, Peter Jackson, Fran, and Phillippa flew over, and invited me for tea. So they got me a car, and drove over for tea. I thought it was more auditioning, because I’d screentested for it. But when I got there, they said would you play the part? Would I? No! Of course not!

They knew you from before…

Well, they saw my screentest for Radagast The Brown, and Guillermo del Toro, who was going to direct it, he’d okayed it. He was keen that I play the part. I didn’t know this, but I got it from the screentest. It wasn’t until I went to see them for tea that I knew. They were asking my permission to be in it!

There’s more Hobbit-related bits in the interview, and trust us, you’ll want to read all of them!

In a new interview with the Belfast TelegraphSaorise Ronan has revealed that she will not be playing the long rumoured role of the Elf Itaril in the upcoming Hobbit films.

An excerpt follows:

It’s probably not going to work out with The Hobbit unfortunately.

Because I would have been working for about a year on it and there were other projects that I was very interested in.

Head over to the Belfast Telegraph to read Ronan’s entire statement in the interview.

Does this mean the role of Itaril has been eliminated from the movie entirely, or does it simply mean that Ronan won’t be the one playing it? Discuss on our message boards.